The Green Ranger
by H. K. Roger
Summary: Modern Hyrule is a state filled with the sounds of engines, industry, and elections resounding against a backdrop of ancient magic and supernatural history, but the that evil closes in on the land is silent, and only those sensitive to it know of the sinister changes occurring by the day. Within a forest of legend, a restless boy shall soon become an agent of evil's bane. OoT AU.
1. I - Life and times in the forest

**A/N: **The contents of this story borrow very heavily from the events of Ocarina of Time, in as much as many of the plot points are essentially transplanted from that game's narrative into this one. The setting for this Hyrule is inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's manga masterpiece and film adaptation _Nausicäa of the Valley of the Wind, _so there will be guns, vehicles on land and in the air, and nature that intertwines with genuine magic. It's also entirely written in the first person from the perspective of my Link character that I've named Captain. I've renamed Link each time I've started a new game for years now and I hope it isn't terribly offensive. This is my very first fanfic so indulge to your heart's content and feel free to leave feedback or message it to me directly. I work on this constantly and enjoy doing so, so expect several updates a month.

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**I HAVE **lived my entire life in a green forest, but for no exact reason I feel uncomfortable. I often climb the trees because I am far too uncomfortable on the ground, the hide of the forest, its floor, feels unsafe. My world is full of green things, plant life and bugs alive like me but not, all of it benign and unresponsive. I walk among them and they flit and bow in the wind, leaves and little creatures, stalks and moss. I am meat and skin in all things, alien pink in a green world. Up in the canopy, I am closer to a whole world through the sky. I am raised from the diorama of forest life. The forest is a place of life and death in harmony, of cycles with exact components in perfect places. I live in a content world but I feel restless. In the boughs I find new life and dreams. Birds fly into the sun and over the whole world, free to land in the trees, on the forest floor, but also in any clime that can be perched in, in rivers and lakes, in any place under the sky. Yes, I am jealous. I keep my eyes closed but I don't want to sleep here, I am listening to the wind in the boughs, the shivering of leaves, rolling waves of life. I hope that destiny is not real. The pattern of things in my life would indicate that I am destined to remain here forever in this forest, should the world have designs at all for me. "Captain." Someone shouts from the ground. She shouts Hey, Hey and claps her hand against the tree. I tilt my ear toward the ground to where Saria is shouting up. Her green hair is far below and looks like a big leaf tilting up from the forest bed. Her skin is like new pale flower petals and even from here her eyes are each a discernable blue like the heart of a river. "Is it dinner time?" My eyes are open and the sky is obtrusively massive, scary big, the leaves wish for none to see it, and do their mindless best to lie to me as well. "Did you gather some wood?"

"It's there. Can't you see it? The pile."

"Good job Captain. This is perfect."

"You're too nice. It's woodcutting not magic."

"I'm nice enough." I lean over and look down at her staring up at me. She always tries to look impatient with me when she wants to boss me around, make me feel time waste between us. When her hair isn't in one of her shiny cloth headbands, she makes it a point to whip it around in front of her face for effect in times like right now. When I jump out of the tree something scurries off as my body thumps and I feel it in my legs and hands. I hear her sigh as loud as she can. "Did you have to jump? You could hurt your leg and it would be for no reason."

"You'd prefer I have a reason when I get hurt."

"I'd prefer if you just climbed down the way you go up the tree." I turn and look at the long-legged wooden machine resting against the bough I leapt from. The wind sways the high branch, and in turn the iron springs at the joints and the deep stakes in the two slender doglegs squeak while the wood creaks like the living trees all around.

"I'm fine."

"Maybe not next time."

"Maybe not." She sighs again and shakes her head curtly, a move that fails to discourage me. "Alright come on Captain." I walk behind her through the brush. All around things float and fly, glowing trains of luminescent bugs loop in the air, spores dash on every gust. She lifts branches up and away from her face and the leaves quake. I duck and push up on them with the back of my hand. This is a little sad because I am trying not to walk like her, her grace with the world around her an irritating source of envy, her perfect poise is the kind of thing I want to complain to her about but know I shouldn't. It's the kind of thing I complain about to myself about myself, cursing my person at night lying awake or in my midday tree. "What were you doing up there?"

"Thinking." Yes, thinking was a word for it. I was lolling back and forth with the branches in the breeze, swaying like a strand of spider silk. "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing really, the birds and the forest. The same kind of quiet thoughts everyone has looking around at our world."

"Do you think happy things about the forest?"

"That's invasive, but of course." She turns around at me and begins to stomp her feet as she walks on the forest floor. "You're a bad liar. You look gloomy today too. You were up there lamenting again."

"Your opinion."

"Anyone's opinion, Captain. You look like you'd kill and eat any fun you'd come across."

"Well I wouldn't. I'm going to dinner aren't I?"

"You are, you are. I feel like I'm dragging you painfully along though. Like your toes are clenched in your boots or your butt is covered in a cold sweat." She smiles and holds her hand to her head, swaying back and forth in front of me. This is definitely funny, but I won't laugh no matter what. "Yeah yeah Saria, I get it. I'm zero fun and it's killing you. Pity pity."

"Oh no, you're not zero fun. You just try to be."

"It's just how I am."

"No, you're fun. It's irrefutable."

"Alright, how am I so fun?"

"Oh I could write a book." We reach the clearing where the village stands right then. The sun is low on the trees, a weak orange sphere that visibly plummets slowly into the foliage and out of the world second by second. The sky is dim and colorful in twilight, the world heavier for lack of light, more severe with darkness but at the same time lacking vitality, sleepy. We enter the village through the brush, a place of low grasses and flowers. We pass among the houses. Doors and windows carved into massive husks of old cut trees are dark as we pass, chimes ting in the wind hanging from posts all around. We hop along the big stones placed in the creek to allow crossing, her uttering goofy noises to exaggerate her effort, me stopping on one leg on a final stone. "Saria." I say, poised. She turns and lets out a laugh but dons a serious look on her brow. It looks just stupid. "No, dinner is imperative."

"You mustn't neglect your training."

"I must. Dinner smells great."

"Saria."

"I'm sorry Captain. There's bread that they baked with raisins in it."

"Oh."

"Yes." I leap out of my pose so fast that I slip and dump into the creek. I splash up and onto the bank and run past her as she keels over with laughter. Eventually I hear her laugh bob along behind me as I run like a wet animal. When I run into the lamplight in a circle of stones she is right behind me, out of breath and rubbing tears from her eye. She tries to pass the laughter and breathe as we approach the long wood table where everyone is sitting. The forest's glowing things gather heavily here as everyone talks at once to each other, moving faster than usual, more alive with them. The food sits on wood plates and blocks, bread in baskets. Steam seems to rise from the whole table as we get there and the final big stone bowls of thick vegetable stews are placed on the table. Mido gets up so fast that he rocks the bench he's sitting at the end of backward. "You are late and you have no firewood." Saria claps her hands to her face and yelps. "Ah we totally forgot."

"You had one job today Captain and you have utterly disappointed the community." I can see in his eyes he's preparing a lecture on my civic duty and my lack of kindness or love or something. His lip is quivering with excitement for it; he actually has a smile on his face in preparation for what's about to happen.

"Oh, shut up Mido." Saria doesn't miss a moment to say it after he's finished. Mido sits down immediately, his face humble and clear. That's the kind of guy Mido is. Everyone settles and quiets down. We're all still and people begin to hold hands. First I grab Dona's hand because I know Saria will already have mine. "The gun too huh?" Dona whispers at me.

"And the axe."

"Well I can't blame you for letting it slip your mind. Smell that bread; it's like condensed love. Who can think of anything but dinner at sunset?"

"Dona, Captain." She and I stare back down at the table, a show of shame that hides smiles glowing into the table. I close my eyes, as I know everyone else is, and my feelings sort of fade and morph in my gut, my smile droops and my mouth feels heavy. If there is anything that could make me forget dinner, despite Dona's bread and everything, it would be this ritual now that would do it. Forget perhaps not but suppress, cultivate a defense against a place and time where I know the events that will transpire and how I'll feel about them. I was building guts to hide away from my feelings in the tree; it wasn't working, it never will. Above my head and then around the whole table I can hear the gentle drone from on high, from out of the trees and drawing close. They descend in a horde to our feelings here. All of us gathered project across the forest together, calling out and waiting silently united. A vibrating glass tone rises. They are close now and everyone knows we can open our eyes to the fairies all wafting in the air above the food, some orbiting around their partner's heads, the glow that encompasses their form basking on smiling faces as they dart and bob. The drone up close is in truth many sounds together, occurring all at once with the rhythmic waving of crystal dragonfly wings. The hum of vibrating glass, a pleasant chiming, a tone of immortal power tiny to the world but all at once greater than anything now there, mystery taking on mock natural form. Some lift their hands where the little things land, glow emanating out of their cupped hands. People converse with the little superb beings, sounds like little bells ringing off as the fairies physically react to jokes and japes made on light lips below bright eyes. All of this happens as I sit here beside Saria. Her fairy is pink and darting in an arc around the back of her head, redoubling each time she reaches her shoulder, staying just out of Saria's sight despite her light attempts to catch it in her gaze. She laughs and the fairy sounds a chime, resting on the top of her head. She looks at me and I look at the bread. Something small and warm bounces off of my cheek and it tingles electrically afterward. "Gild says hello Captain."

"Hello, Gild." I hear the little creature whizz at the sound of her name, though Saria would perceive actual words. That is simply how a partnership works in the forest, two entities on a proper wavelength, communicating on high levels with forces impenetrable to all creatures outside. As I've come to understand, the pact is each woven unique with fibers dense with experience and heart, so much personal power is included as to make the relationship unique to each pair bonded and alien to all else in the world. Gild and Saria as I have come to know are tender to one another, both engaging in play and banter in spaces between laughter and half-hearted pouting. It is nice to see, they are all nice to see together. I don't know what I am to look at, alone here. I am the sole lone figure at the table, looking around at everyone quietly while everyone spends all their time on living magic. We are alone in our world until we meet our partners here, an individual of their kind most attuned to the aspects of one of us which only they can sense, things unknowable to the senses of flesh and eyes, perceived only by assets supernatural. Right now, I am the only one in the whole of our world with no partner, sitting still as the tree trunks with my hands under the table. Everyone knows and everyone pays it mind but they're nice enough to most of the time stay quiet about it. They're really good for that I'd say. It's a hard thing to just stay quiet about, to sit and watch every night something clearly amiss happen right over here. It worries some people. People see me at midday during the periods the fairies remain here, and they visibly remember what they subconsciously always know about me. I can see pity in upper eyelids and pulling corners of mouths, it screams through tear ducts as it gets retracted, causing echoes in the gaze even as placidity and normalcy returns. Yeah, let me tell you I wish I didn't have to walk around alone when the village is messy with laughter and magic. Other people look at me on those days and they look away as fast as they look away from carcasses and the graves. Mido once waved his hand around the empty space where a fairy partner would fly and made a comment I didn't hear and Saria grabbed his shoulders and drove her knee deep into his gut. He puked salad leaves and bile and river water for a minute and cried profusely. I propped him up and walked him home as he wretched and moaned so loud that some of the others thought a headsick animal had wandered in from the Lost Woods. Saria once explained that as it stood right now I had her and she would be my partner, my friend forever just like a fairy. She is my best friend who knows deeply of me. I never question this, but I know as well that she is the only one. The others, even Dona, have trouble with me, the anomaly, and in turn I have trouble with them. Even Saria I can have trouble with, I can wake up and meet her outside and have no idea what to say or do. It's as if my person misfires and jams like a dirty old rifle in those moments; it's enough to make me want to smash every apparatus of my mind, to become blank instead of defective. She never cares a bit even though she knows when I do it. A look in her eye reveals to me she knows my mind and everything else about her proceeds as normal without me having to say anything. I look at her and Gild and she's got her chin on her palm, Gild rests on the tip of a stretched finger. "I don't really think you need one."

"Yeah you've said that."

"Have I?"

"Too many times I think."

"That sounds a bit like scolding even though I haven't said it enough times."

"Yeah because you do and think whatever you feel like about me."

"I do and think what you feel I shouldn't about you."

"Yeah because you're a sorceress and we aren't even friends."

"You're definitely perfectly fine with me as your forever friend."

"Yeah because" I say but stop as I look at her and then past her to all the fairies alight on all the fingers and floating on all the heads and then back to her and just then want to tell her that I'm fine with her because she is all I have but it hurts too much already just to know it, and uttering it becomes unfeasible. She raises her eyebrows while I roll out my silence and she utters a loud hum from her throat that inflects upwards real sharp at the end. "Because what Captain?" I turn back to the bread, snatch a loaf and tear it. I thoroughly bypass chewing and basically shove the bread down my throat.

"Let me eat Saria." The bread in my throat deepens my voice as it waggles and stretches my gullet. "You are far and away the worst. I've had better relationships with angry bees that I was stealing honey from. Do you hear me, Captain? Little bugs who can't even talk, who are only emotionally capable of being angry and vicious, and who try to stab me when I steal their only form of livelihood, that's your competition."

"Yeah but I help you make your sweets."

"That means nothing."

"You and I both know you'd rather be surrounded by entities that will let you do whatever you want with honey."

"I don't need you."

"Oh so you'll train someone else to decorate your tarts so late in the season?" I turn and look at her with the bread held up. "That would be unwise." She snatches the bread from my hand, stands up, turns and throws it overhead with a guttural yell. It spirals through the air and into the darkness of the trees as Mido slams his hands on the table and yells SARIA, PLEASE. She slinks back down and I have trouble stifling my laughter as Mido takes to glaring at us both unendingly.

**I** **MOUNT** the first rung on the ladder when she startles me. "Great tree is your house ever high."

"I get nicer breezes high up."

"You'll wake up chilled to the bone and sick to death."

"Better than all the ovens everyone else sleeps in at ground level. Your brain already cooked years ago." She had been carrying a stick to trace in the soil with and she breaks it on my ribcage. I moan at the smarting while she enters her introspective disposition. "I don't think you're a bad friend."

"I know you don't. I can be bad to you sometimes though."

"Yeah but that isn't something I hate. I don't hate anything about you Captain, I want you to know that." I dismount the ladder fully and hug her. "Goodnight, Saria.

"Goodnight, Captain." I begin climbing the ladder again and I'm at the top in time to see Saria turn and wave before rounding the corner of the bluff standing like a wall beside my home. I wave a little despite her not stopping to get a response. That was the most I'd touched her in years I think. It was a lot and it was desperate. I feel myself slipping in some way and I need to reach her in some way to maintain. Maybe I need to reach more than her. I wish I could reach the world and the sky and escape to the universe at large just to see it once. But it would appear that fate is real, and it is mine to remain here and see only what I am meant to.

**I AM **standing upon a road that leads to an old city wall. Bright halogens beam through the fat raindrops, their power lines slapping the bricks in the wind. The sky is dark and thunder rolls across the entire world. A great bridge begins to swing across a river, a great and old portcullis rising with resounding action. A rifle is in my hand I realize and by its weight I can tell that it is loaded. Lighting flashes and illuminates all of the dark corners of the constructed world and plains behind me. A sound is rising over the din of rain, a hurried buffering of wings or blades in the wet air. A moment later a gyrocopter rises over the wall and tilts to the plain, lurching then whizzing forward while descending in altitude to me. It is near ground level and beside me when I see barely in the dark riding passenger a flash of bright gown staring at me with blue eyes that cut darkness. In the next moment the gyro lifts off and away high toward the sky over the far plain, the eyes visible and still fixed upon me until they turn to the sky to which they travel. A loud roar erupts behind me and I turn to the bridge and the gaping maw of the gate. From deep within the noise grows louder, a roar resounding and shooting into the sky. A black shape launches from out of the portcullis, a mass of plates hunched onto four wheels. Its engine whistles and a flash of lightning turns the tinted windshield white. It screeches to a halt on the road of which I stand at the side of. I lift the rifle into my other hand as my stomach drops into a pit of my own dread. The roof pulls back and the side panels on the front slide back like plate lips. In the vehicle's dark body something slides forth just into sight in the opening, something possessing a pair of yellow eyes that pierce like the blue ones had, but seemed heavier, violent and oppressive in the purpose behind them. I lift the rifle to my hip and stumble back on my foot, retracting the bolt and fumbling to set it back home. I raise the gun and see a massive hand now facing me from inside the darkness, palm first and fingers splayed. I tense up and blink hard as sweat ignored floods my eyes, and open them to find myself on my bed, damp and lying on my back. I'm quiet and measuring my breath, inhaling, thinking of that song Saria plays with its three notes, exhaling, three notes again. Through the big mesh window above my bed, I see the night sky lightening to azure with the coming of the sun. I feel my heart calm beat by beat, and I close my eyes again only to find myself in another dream.

**IT IS **a strange feeling when I realize I am locked in a world of a dream, as I was not moments before. My consciousness inhabits the body of a fairy but I cannot speak. Where many dreams possess a blurry quality to their feelings of possession and purpose, this one I find myself enraptured in now was so clear in intention that it was clear my mind had tread beyond. I am also not this fairy as I dream; I watch the sylvan dream world with my own eyes only my vision is noisier than usual with static that looks like the result of treatments by clouds and waves. The trees and forest they stand in look much like the world I am familiar to, only when the fairy turns it faces a massive colossus of one pure tree. Its single canopy is like a cloud of leaves bound to the mountainous trunk, a rising sun thrusting spears of light through it to the various points of the great indented section of forest bed in which the tree towers centrally. In the very center of the trunk is a pair of symmetrical gnarled galls, separated by a long downward ridge that billowed at the bottom to make it triangular. Below this is stranger gnarling that runs from even more galled trunk mass that exists horizontally, its two corners swollen to sharp points standing off the tree. In the dream haze it takes me long to realize this is the Dekumekuna, the Great Tree, an ancient being of synthesis, of unison between magic and life. This being is known to all of us as our guardian, the being to which we owe our very existences. Our village and our people continue to exist such as we do with forest and all things that trees and shrub and soil entail on all sides because of this one tremendous life form covering the entire forest with its persuasive magic. I have seen it only once in my memory, during a funeral for the single casualty of a forest fire. Even then, myself and most were quite far while the remains were committed to the roots of the Tree, while the fairy whose vantage I share is hovering the tree indents and galls that formulate the Dekumekuna's face-like protrusions. It had been a thing of tapestries and wooden doorway friezes, the tree with the massive mustache, big nose and eyebrows, up until I saw the actual natural formation of which the art borrows from. I can hear the wind blow through the trees, and gently rising on the whispering of the leaves came a gentle deep voice that fills my mind and spirit. "Navi…Loyal, clever Navi, I beseech thee to come." The fairy flies closer and jostles as I then hear its voice, soft and pleasant. "I am here Great Deku. What is it you wish of me?"

"Navi, gentle, swift Navi, listen to my words and heed them. This I beg thee. I know thou hast felt that which hangs above this world…a shroud…doom…descending. For long as that which bids me to be has existed…for as long as this realm has been and things have roamed upon it…this forest…this place of pure life…has been both boon and barrier to this land. This forest has maintained the order of life…it has protected it endlessly. Soon though, little Navi…the dark force beyond our sight…the entities that have cast this veil…shall attack and destroy…this forest…all…and my power is as nothing to stop it."

"What is there to be done Great Deku? What power exists that can prevent this?"

"None…no power…only courage…cunning…wisdom. Fortune and hope."

"But this forest is seeped in magic, and you yourself Great Deku are one of the most powerful beings in all the world. How ? This evil will not rely on these, so why are we?"

"Little Navi…the logic carried in thy being makes thee stronger than a beast a thousand fold greater in size. Navi…thou must trust others the way I trust thee."

"Then who do we trust with the world, Great Deku? Have you a plan to inform the king of the Hylians and his armies?"

"No…only the princess. The king too…loses his power by the moment. It must be the princess."

"Can Hylians truly be trusted with this? If they could be trusted with this realm we would not wield the responsibility we do."

"Trust and have faith Little Brave One. Time runs short…you must go to the boy among my children…the boy who has yet to find a fairy partner. Thou must bring him to me that I might see him and know…know whether he may bring justice to this land the sun shines upon."

"I know the boy, Great Deku Tree. What do you require of him?"

"No, Navi…all will be revealed in due time…now you must fly and fly swiftly. The fate of the forest…nay…nay…the world hangs on the wings of thee." I can hear the little fairy whose vantage point I share shift and begin to stutter, but faithfully she does as the Dekumekuna begs and flies with the wind out of the sacred grove, through the birches standing slanted in the earth like tall old bones. She enters our village high above the darkened homes and the lit lamps as the sun rises. I see people I know out of their homes, stretching or singing. Some notice the little fairy as it flits through the sky, surprised and calling. She searches and searches, flying through vines and the fences, bumping into things and walls in her great hurry. A person called Riko swipes at her but she flies through his fingers. She flies high above the village so as to see all of it, to gain vantage as to the location of the person whom she seeks. When she focuses upon my home, I awake. It was the best dream I had had in weeks, free from omens and the black vehicle, the gyro and the eyes. Instead, I dreamt of the Great Deku speaking of me and sending me a fairy partner, of being freed to the sky to visit a far away princess. "Oh well" I say to myself, and plummet back into sleep.


	2. II - An awakening and a partnership

**I HAVE **no idea what the noise is when it wakes me. The sensation of a bug hitting my skin followed by a tingling after-effect occurs repeatedly on my forehead and cheeks. I swat it and roll over to catch enough sleep for the day. The sound intensifies and the little irritant continues to fly into my head. I flap my arm in the air and my forearm is stung. I coddle the wound and grow loud and upset. "Wake up! Captain! The Great Deku Tree requests your audience and you'd better comply! Hey! Listen you little log!" The loud voice needs to go, I decide, and wrap the pillow around my head and moan and become wretched. "Would you wake up!? Get out of bed! Why are we relying on such a lazy bum?" The rudeness is not welcome in my home but I just want to sleep, I want to ignore it until it goes away. I do not recognize the voice. I do not know where they are standing. I unwrap my head. The Great Deku wants to speak to me, it is said. I prop myself on my arm and swing my legs to hang from my bed carved from heart of the massive stump from which the whole interior of my home was hewed. I yawn and stretch my arms and neck all out, then slowly lower my head to see a fairy lit a brilliant cerulean in the wan light of dawn. It flies right into my nose and then does it again and again. I bellow and tumble to the floor. Terrified, I scramble as it chases me. "Excuse me! The Great Deku has requested your presence you little monkey! Relax!" I paw a hefty walking staff whittled and carved from an old growth tree bough and smash the fairy across out my window. It leaves a glittering trail out into the leaves of the oak leaning close to my home. I stew the reality of my surroundings for a second as the sleep drifts from my eyes and mind. The fairy had been the same as the one from my dream. I had batted the little thing back into the forest. "Oh no." The fairy flies back in through my front door and right into my eye. It burns my eyelid then pulls away and flies and shocks me all over the place. I knock one of my pots to the floor with a sweeping arm. I fall to the floor and clap my hand onto the biggest shard and wield both it and my big staff, cornered and angry. "Why does the Deku Tree want me?"

"As if I should know! The Great Deku is wise beyond either of us." It flies right to my forehead before I can even swipe my arms wildly. "But every one makes mistakes eventually I think." Her voice echoes inside my mind as I hear the familiar fairy chime. "Wait," I say lowering my arms, balancing and looking at the wings flitting on my head. "I can hear you speak."

"Of course, we are partners!"

"But you're annoying."

"Oh truly?!" She flies onto the back of my hand and shocks me terribly. I drop the staff and it falls onto my foot. I crumple and clutch my throbbing bare toes. I feel the spark on my ear and she yells right into my skull: "WE ARE PARTNERS NOW AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS IRRELEVANT TO OUR TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT MISSION." She flies from my ear and hovers above my doormat. I get up and walk to the carved portal with the handspun fibre curtain flapping inward with the odorous forest breeze. "Alright. Tremendous. Ow."

"Good. I am Navi the Fairy, denizen of this forest, one of few answerable directly to the high magical guardian spirit of this forest, the Dekumekuna. Your guardian has requested your presence in our forest's sacred grove, and has asked that I spiritually couple with you in order to lead you there. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Captain of the Kokiri." I rub my eye like I would a bug bite. It stings venomously. "Nice to meet you too."

"With formalities concluded, let us alight. Immediately." She flies out and flits around at the ladder. She actually rings out into the air like a bell. I pull my tall doeskin boots up leaning on the chiseled wall and then decide to pull my old leather gloves on for the hike. As I'm tightening my belt and making sure the fasteners are tight on the treated leather pouches, checking the little bottles, rope. I slide my folding knife in the holster and snag my lighter and lamp in the two loops. I shuffle to test everything's place and security on my person, jumping once and then bending to every way to stretch and become limber. I barely remember to lash my compass to a belt loop while I head to the door. I lift the curtain with a forearm and walk under it, and when I stand erect outside Saria begins hooting from below. "Hey! Captain! Oh! OH! What!?" She is still making a commotion as I descend the ladder. She is at my boot when I'm at the bottom rung. "Captain, is that fairy with you?"

"She is."

"She is! Oh man, Captain that's huge! This is the greatest day!" I get to the ground and Saria is transfixed on the fairy. "Well Captain, will you introduce us?" The fairy hovers beside my head in front of Saria's eyes. "Well, uh, this is Navi."

"Communicate to her my full title, I will not have my introductions to be so lacking in truth."

"Sorry, this is Navi the fairy. She works for the Deku Tree." She begins yelling but I remember that Saria once told me that Gild would become indiscernible when she would focus too much on something else, and I learn she is right. "She's taking me to the Great Deku's meadow, the Deku Tree wants to see me." Saria's eyes light and expand out of their lids, her pupils revealing their white border. She smiles huge and turns to the fairy with an open hand in front of her face that she sends across. Navi alights onto her finger and Saria moves it up and down, shaking her whole being. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Navi the fairy, honored retainer of our forest's sacred guardian, and partner to my best friend in the whole world." Navi visibly brightens and flies back into the air and around my head with a gentle bounce. "I do like this girl very much."

"She says she likes you."

"Well I like her, too. Captain how did this happen? When?" She gasps, as if she desperately needed oxygen as the realizations came. "Oh you'd get lost on the way to the meadow without her! Yeah that's right, only fairies now the way. Oh that's so wonderful." She claps her hands to her face, gasping through them, and they are visibly shaking with excitement. "Oh this must be tremendously important then! The most important! I can't keep you any longer, you have to go now!" She pushes me back and goes and sits on a stump besid the trunk of my home. She pulls her ocarina out and flutters her breath into a few times to toot dust and any particulate matter within right out through the finger holes. "I'll be right here. Go and go fast, Captain, you lazy bum." Another comment from Navi about how likeable Saria is. "Alright, well I'll see you. Be good."

"You be good, Captain. Go."

**I CREST **the hill with the fairy hiding up my sleeve. The day is in full motion now. Everyone is out and seeing to their enjoyment and responsibilities around the village. Sid the Distribution Manager hangs the fresh fish on the racks, Mat my neighbor pulls the crabgrass from the turf outside of Mido's house. People have been stopping me all day and Navi is tired of the introductions. When we get to the avenue of apple trees constantly in blossom that demarcates the beginning of the path to the sacred groves, Mido standing alone at guard fires his hand into my face. His hand and spread-legged frame is perfectly still and framed by the deep colored tree trunks and the gorgeous canopy of high blossoms pale like the moon. The only things moving in the scene were blossoms tumbling to the earth, and the top of Mido's cap flapping in the sweet wind surging from behind him down the avenue. "Stop. What possible purpose do you have in this direction?"

"The Great Deku Tree summoned me." He lowers his hand and wavers bodily.

"What? What?! The Great Deku Tree summoned _you_!? Nonsense, total lies." Navi flies from my sleeve and into the air.

"A fairy!? What!? Captain when and how did you receive a fairy partner?! Tell me immediately."

"Mido just let me through, this fairy is my guide to the meadow."

"Absolutely not! No not until you get the rifle you left out of the western woods. And even still you'd be woefully unequipped for the world beyond my guard." I sigh hard right in his face. Navi positions herself right next to my ear. "Press the issue further, we must hurry to the Great Deku's meadow."

"You understand this fairy?"

"Yeah. Mido seriously, I'd only be able to come out of my house this morning with a fairy because of the Deku Tree. He's father to us all and your spitting in his face."

"Excellent confrontation Captain."

"The Deku Tree wishes to see you, but he wishes that I keep this community together and working in harmony. As such I, Mido, Supervisor of the Kokiri, command you to do your civic duty and retrieve the tools you left in the forest before I consider allowing you passage."

"Captain this becomes more ridiculous the more I listen. This individual is far too zealous in his duty. This task cannot be obstructed, especially not by some uppity Kokiri. Use your superior stature and physique now and knock this fool out."

"Alright, Mido. I'll go get the rifle and the axe."

"See to it that you do, Captain." He crosses his arms and hurumphs as I walk away and the fairy loses it. "How could you waste time on an errand with such an important task looming?"

"We'll be better off with the gun. Just in case. Preparation." My argument satisfies Navi and she returns to my sleeve. "Let us continue, then."

**AT THE **village's western edge a man named Hani stops me to talk. "Off to collect more wood today Captain?"

"Just getting the tools I left yesterday."

"Oh well you don't have to go far to get them. The Know-It-Alls brought them out for you when they surveyed the particles this morning."

"Oh they didn't have to."

"Yeah well apparently the particles are way thin near the forest edge today, they had everything collected so no one could run the risk out there. The particles haven't been good all for a while now. Last week a whole bunch of mushroomers working the south woods nearly passed out and had to spend five hours at Saria's."

"Yeah I heard."

"It's crazy, some people think they can play the game, but the parts of this world that don't have enough particles will kill us dead if we find ourselves there, but there's nothing to play there's just out there dead and in the village alive, you know?"

"I know Hani. I'll see you later okay?"

"Yeah alright. You going to the Know-It-Alls?"

"Mhmm."

"Well I'll be seeing you then."

"Be seeing you."

"Could you tell Saria if you see her before I do that we're still on for the band rehearsal?"

"Sure."

**THE BURNING **sweetgrass in the Know-It-All's home renders the air thick on the hill the barrow stands atop. It is the only home of its kind in the whole village, necessitated by a lightning strike burning one of the traditional husks to ash, the number of years ago of this occurrence never properly remembered when the topic arises. Saria insists it was one hundred. I knock on the thick old door covered in little signs scrawled by hand detailing facts related to various disciplines: methods of efficiently mending leather, which mushrooms were inedible and why, proper stretching procedures. I see the lights inside obstructed by moving shadows and hear a flurry of noise and chatter far behind the door. The door flies open so fast that it sucks wind. "Captain! It's good to see you my friend. I take it you are here for your woodcutting stuff? I kept it right here at the door for you in case Mido bossed you into going into the forest to get them today. The particles are bad today you know."

"Yeah I know. Thanks. I just need the gun."

"Right, right. Just the gun? What are you getting up to today with just the gun?"

"It is not his affair, please just get the weapon and let us go."

"I'm going to the sacred groves to see the Great Deku Tree." I learn now that fairies are capable of sighing. "Oh. Oh my the Dekumekuna how exciting. Listen the groves are actually deceptively dangerous you know. They're positively awash in spiritual energy and excess magic. Who knows what's in there? Other than the fairies of course but they're so small and live in the canopies. Who knows what they miss?" The fairy sighs again. When the small figure falls to silence, he picks up the long slender rifle from behind the door. He pulls the bolt back and checks the chamber before laboriously returning it home. "I see you cleaned it recently. I'm glad to see you didn't use those duck down dusters like the others do, they leave terrible little feathers like no ones business."

"Thanks." I take it in both hands then sling it over my shoulder.

"Oh hey I actually have something for you if you're going to the grove. Come in come in." I cross the threshold into the densely odorous dim home. Tinn, the youngest Know-It-All Brother and an important part of the three brothers earning the sassy title from the rest of the village, runs deep into the barrow's depths with palpable energy. Standing in the foyer waiting I can hear him rifling through all matter of things in the unseen depths of his home. In a room to the right where the sun spills from I can hear the scribbling of another brother alone with only parchment and ink, facts and histories as company, not to be disturbed in his dalliance with all recordable information. The other brother is likely up in the tallest tree near to the village as he always is watching the spore blooms and measuring them against the past and the projections he notes the day before at the foot of the tree or on his lawn with his pipe. Tinn runs right out of a dark room, the wind of his running sucking papers from their piles behind him and sending them flying all about him like flat spirits performing a parade behind him. "Tinn please." The brother exclaims hearing that which he works all of his days on flap onto the floor around the house. "Sorry, sorry. Here it is though, Captain." He holds up to me a twenty-inch shortsword in a cracked cured leather scabbard and matching aged belt. I lift it out of his hands and turn it over in my hands. I pull it clean out of the scabbard to examine it. Its brass crescent crossguard and cursive knuckle-bow have been polished excessively of skin oils and wax for generations while the metal wore under countless nicks and scuffs. The wrap on the hilt was a refurbishment now victimized as well, its past shade now unknowable in the presence of its pale goldenrod, a result of an environment of the forest outside and the hands that held it constantly enveloping the homespun plant fibers. I tilt the sword in the light from the next room and inspect the single amethyst gem set in the gross guard by four prongs that form the shape of a star. Various shades of purple play on the inside of the rough cut stone. I run my finger in the single thick fuller in the middle of the ellipse blade before sheathing it again. "It's our oldest."

"I can see that."

"Well it isn't in the commune. We get to keep it here because it's not practical for hunting, so you're all right to take it for today."

"Where did this come from?"

"Well Till thinks it was for melee combat but there isn't much indication for when we would have used it. It's an odd thing really, it could've come from outside too but the amethyst is a very traditional Kokiri gem."

"Thought emeralds were." Navi stings me from inside my sleeve to goad me to return focus to our task. "Well anyway, I appreciate this Tinn. I have to hurry, I've kept the Deku Tree waiting."

"Alright I'll be seeing you Captain. Oh actually one thing. Could you ask the Great Deku if he can illuminate some of the major shifts in the forest? Wilt says the spore plumes are shrinking drastically, and the particles are conversely dispersing at the forest edges rather alarmingly. People are starting to notice, I'm sure you heard about those mushroomers last week. They were only one hour south of the village. The particle clouds used to be prolific even beyond the forest, so much so that we could even stand in the outside world in some places. It's all very alarming. We may even have to move into the groves, or maybe even the lost woods. The Deku Tree hasn't held audience with any of us for so long, so since you have the opportunity to inquire, I hope you will do so."

"Yeah, I'll ask for you Tinn. Be good."

**I'M MAD **at Mido before I even talk to him. He stands under the blossoms with his arms crossed just like I had last seen him, as if he'd not moved or altered his position in the universe once since that time. "Why did you bring the rifle?"

"It might be dangerous in the groves."

"What is that sword in your belt? All the hunters are out today, all the blades should be gone."

"The Know-It-Alls had it and gave it to me. I need to pass now."

"Well I won't allow you. The particles are low today you know."

"Not in the groves and you know it."

"The order stands Captain, I've decided to start reigning the community in. The forest grows more dangerous by the day and I won't stand for unnecessary danger."

"Mido there won't be any trouble I won't be able to handle with the rifle and I brought a spin-charm." Mido holds his resolution in his face and beams it to me, getting into a slight defensive squat. I think about hitting him with the club of the rifle before I hear the fairy whisper it in my ear. I have a much more tangible communicable feeling after, one related to a grand umbrella over my life I sighted in the tree yesterday. "Mido, please. This is the closest thing to being a part of this forest as I've ever felt." His squat deepens for a second but he rises again with wider eyes that he ensures to squint again. "Fine," he says "but be back for dinner." He sidles once and turns out of my way. Our eyes meet for a second and he squints again at me. "I'll be back for dinner."

"Be good." I pull the bolt and drop a shell in, and then I slam the bolt back home again.

**THE MEADOW **circles the Dekumekuna perfectly, as if the birch trees and oaks were maintaining distance out of respect and fear. The forest being what it is, the truth may not be altogether removed from conjecture on the nature of these things. The colour of the grass and the flowers seem saturated in supernatural light as the blades and petals stand perfectly still, despite the Deku Tree's canopy casting shade down over the whole area. There is silence here that seems to be a quality of the air itself, a calm natural to everything in existence here. I finally look upon the Dekumekuna with my own eyes and find myself unable to decide how to continue. It is as a colossal pillar of life reaching into the sun, hoisting a small sky of leaves and fractal boughs. I've often been told that the face of the Great Deku was actually a mass of convenient tree gall, composing a moustache, eyebrows and a bulbous nose. Viewing it in reality now, there is a sense of intentionality to everything concerning this being. I believe everything about this single massive thing in the world has some magnitude of will committed to it or within it. Navi flies from my sleeve into the air between the Deku Tree and I. The sound of her wings ringing in the air as they flit is the only noise in the whole meadow. "Great Deku, I have returned with the young Kokiri. What do you want of him?"

"Navi…thou…hast returned" It is a voice from my mind that speaks for the Deku Tree. The invasion sets my teeth on edge. "Young Captain…listen please…to my words…and deliver them consideration. These nights passed…through the waning and returning of this moon…your dreams have been haunted by dark figures and oppression. Yes…these nightmares plague you…as the forces of darkness…encircle. Their presence…like taint in water…affects those sensitive to it. Verily…thou hast felt it." The fairy turns to me expectant. "I have, Great Deku. Last night I dreamt of a storm at a castle wall, and a black tank." There is a noticeable hesitancy in the Deku, a terseness that snaps when his voice surges back into my mind. "Yes Captain…these nightmares…and the other disturbing happenings within this forest…all are related to the coming storm. Now Captain…the time has come…I wish to test your courage…should you be willing. I…have been…cursed." Navi becomes hysteric, ringing in the air and spinning. "What!? Great Deku why have you not told me this?! This is terrible!"

"Be calm…energetic little Navi…all will be well. Our friend Captain…may yet be capable…through his courage and cunning…of lifting this curse. Dost thou will to risk…Captain? Dost thou have…requisite…courage?" Navi flies to my side and I feel her stare on my face. "Yes" I say to the tree as though it were right there though it actually stands too far to humanly hear me. "Then come." Suddenly and violently, a section of the bark under the nose-form gall began to split and shrink, morphing and withering until there is a large abscess from the roots to the moustache. The darkness within is impenetrable and oppressive. While I focus upon it, it seems to grow out and mutate, to engulf slowly the world of light surrounding. I begin walking and I hold the rifle in both hands, tempted to check everything about the firing mechanism and the bolt and the rounds loaded, but knowing they are in order. I steady my pace and exhale. I inhale, think of the three notes, fwee fwee fwee, just like Saria plays them on her ocarina, and then exhale again. I repeat this all the way, until I reach the towering entrance into the dark. I gaze up and the Dekumekuna speaks again for the last time. "Trust in one another…little ones. Navi the Fairy… must impart wisdom…to illuminate. Captain…the Courageous…you must steel thy self…and sally forth…to dispel. Now…proceed." I fix my gaze into the darkness and lift the rifle stock to my shoulder. The fairy's light cuts the shadow and pours blue light over the walls. My boot heel thuds onto the solid wood once and I am proceeding before I can realize. I am sallying forth.


	3. III - Inside the Great Deku Tree

**NAVI'S LIGHT **leads me down the passage until we reach an immense chamber, reaching high into darkness. Navi gasps and brightens, flying up and dimming my surroundings. Where she hovers, she illuminates the walls, revealing their distress and gouges. "Has the Deku Tree always been hollow like this?"

"No. He has had hollow pockets on his body where he shelters us and the creatures that will come near him, but this." She flies slowly to the wall and presses against it, to touch and feel it like one would with their fingertips. "This is not right." There is noticeable sadness in her voice, a tender way in that she handles the words that relate to a subject beloved and now so steeped in pain. It is a heavy remorse that hurts to see and hear in the little creature.

"What could have done this?" I say, touching a wall myself. Its surface is ragged and violent, as if attacked with a malicious tool. "Insects maybe?" I say out loud, more to reflect then to inquire.

"I suspect that may be accurate, some of the wood has been devoured by mandibles in places. However, for insects to do all of this in such a short time would be unheard of. Most insects are entirely devoted to self-preservation and propagation; rarely do they ever act in excess. For insects to devour this much in so little time, I'd imagine they'd somehow have to be either purpose driven to do so, or incredibly massive." I twist the top of the black rod that is my little lamp and a bright yellow light snaps on. I lift it above my head and look upon a series of great incisions taller than myself in the tree wall. Navi turns to see these as I do. "Oh dear."

"Yeah. Incredibly massive." I begin to search around slowly, scanning the dark, setting the lamp into its holster and raising the rifle. It feels as if terror is a property of the air, poisoning it, causing my chest to tighten as I breathe it. "Stay calm, it is the middle of the day. Most burrowing insects are nocturnal in this forest, if they are anywhere then they would be in their burrow right now."

"Okay, so where would that be?"

"The root system I would suspect. Nutrients and sugars are most prolific there; it would be ideal to nurse juveniles there."

"So we go down then. They'll probably have tunnels around they use to get everyone straight to their work site." I pause in step and wish I could catch words in my hand before they reach the fairy, embarrassingly insensitive as they were toward the benevolent being that created and protects us both. "I'm sorry that was bad." But she is in a state now of deep, strange curiosity, alienating her from even her feelings in this moment. "No, it is an accurate description. This is a considerable endeavor, one that insects which have easily secured sustenance and shelter, would almost certainly not undertake. This chamber positively reeks with intention that should not exist."

"Intention for what?" I say, proceeding again, creeping onto my heels and gently rolling my weight to the flats of my boots.

"Malice." It is just then at the end of her single tensely pronounced answer that I hear something. It shuffles across the floor to my distant right in the shroud of darkness beyond our light. I stop dead for a second, angry and terrified. I should have stayed by the wall and now I could more than feasibly be surrounded. I say nothing to Navi who continues until she notices my halt. She turns to me, and in her pale light I see my sweat glisten. The only creatures in the whole of the forest that cannot see in the dark are the Kokiri and the fairies, so I assure myself that the entity beyond my sight can see us, while we are blind to it. "There's something in here with us"

"Where?" The fairy almost yelps but sounds as if attempting to stifle it, as I become increasingly aware that she is unable to adopt a dependable façade of any kind. "At my right in the dark. Don't move, it won't come near us yet."

"Our light?"

"Yeah." I decide it's time to turn to its position and in the dark I make out two dim eyes, deep ochre in colour. I bellow a command I barely think of to Navi to close her eyes before I even think if she has any, and from out of the dark flies a spinning shape like a slow bullet that I just manage to bat with the butt of the gun before I close my own eyes and turn away as the projectile explodes in a pure white chemical flash. I turn back around and run right at the eyes as they turn away to flee. I dive onto my knees and catch a wriggling body part halfway into the ground. Navi catches up to me and is frantic, her light shifting and casting erratic shadows over my arms and the wriggling legs in the hole. I lean back and heave until the creature gives and flies back with me onto the ground. "Captain what is that?" It wheels over onto its back and reveals its wide spout mouth and fixed pupil-less eyes set in wood-like skin and begins making a sucking noise before I plant my weight on one knee on its chest. It blows air out hard and I ram my hand into its mouth and clutch a set of wet strings inside. It writhes under me and gurgles around my arm. "It's a Deku scrub." Navi says over my shoulder.

"It sure is." I say, exerting to hold it down. "It's gone mad though, see its eyes?"

"Yes." She replies, affected. "What is it doing here?"

"Mad scrubs are mostly scavengers, it's looking for corpses or carrion." The words chill.

"Mad scrubs scavenging inside the Great Deku Tree. This is all so very awful. From where did you learn such things about the scrub people?"

"The people that get nominated for ranger duty have to learn everything there is about the dangers of the forest. They blind us with Deku nuts to prepare us, dab skulltula poison on our tongues, that sort of thing." I reach under its eye and pull its flesh down to observe its eyeball. Sickly purple veins snake almost all the way to the pale yellowing center. It looks all around and thrashes violently, trying to flex the muscle I hold in its mouth to regurgitate a nut into its mouth, secreting sour resin from its tear ducts. "Its been cannibalizing in here. There are probably dead scrubs in that tunnel it tried to run to."

"Oh no." She gasps loudly, stifling a small sob by speaking. "How terrible. Things should not be like this. For a Deku to turn to the consumption of meat is travesty in its own right, but for such a creature to end up like this." She shakes in the air like a bell dangled on a ribbon. "It is all so truly tragic."

"Yeah." I say as I pull the shortsword out of the scabbard strapped up on my right shoulder blade.

"I'm sorry." I say and stab the creature hard and fast. I pull my hand from its calm mouth slowly as I look into its eyes. I watch as the veins dissipate and the colour of its eyes fade, staring up into the dark at some subject unknowable, beyond even the physical world of this chamber in a realm far beyond yet close, in the mind, a realm where I imagine the creature is freer by the second from its sickness and pain but I shall never know the truth. I close its eyes and clean its face and Navi and I stay crouched by its side quietly. Navi sobs once, quietly. I stand up and whip the sword to strip any blood from it and then sheathe it. I walk over and pick up he rifle and then turn to Navi. "Let's put an end to this."

**THE WEBBING **burns up alarmingly so I refrain from doing it twice. Navi has been silent for a while and has simply followed me as I descend down the big hole burrowed into the floor of the tree's chamber we found near the scrub's tunnel. I put the lighter back into the pouch and proceed again down my rope, releasing the pressure in my fist and loosening the wrapped rope. There is no sound in the pit save the fairy's wings, noticeably more quiet than usual, and the friction noises of the rope as it runs through my glove. I reach a dirt bottom and ensure the footing is all right, then whip the rope enough times to push the hook up and off the wall. "Watch out, the hook is coming down." The hook falls right beside me in the dirt with a dull thud and I notice all of the cracked carapaces about on the ground. I pick it up and twist the hook hard one way holding it where it connects to the rope and the talons collapse into the metal base like cat claws. I wind the rope and fit it back into its round pouch and do likewise for the hook. I pull out a flare round from one of the loops in my belt, pull back the bolt and swap the rounds out in the rifle. We proceed down the wide tunnel and I crunch things underfoot all the way. At a point the tunnel opens up into a dark expanse and my boots splash halfway to my knee in water. All around in the dark there is constant dripping of water from on high. "They've destroyed his roots. Oh…oh this is so awful." I turn to the fairy and see it shaking in the air, its light flickering." I step closer, remembering myself to be this creature's partner no matter what I thought and endeavoring to be some kind of boon, but just then I hear a splash somewhere in the room. I turn to the dark and another splash like something falling from the roof occurs, and then another. Soon there are dozens of disturbances of the water in the dark, happening in a radius around me. There is bustling, too, all around. It was likely fact that there was nothing behind me so luckily I have at least some idea of my position in regards to my quarrels. I lift the gun to my hip arc it upward and fire. The round flies slower than a regular bullet but still climbs high into the air and screeches as it climbs, and then explodes into a small red sun slowly descending and belching sparks. In its red light countless two-legged insects flee the sound and glare. Across the room is another low tunnel mouth surrounded in insects. "Gohmas!" Navi shouts. "But this is impossible, their territory is nowhere near here! And those are massive drones, I've never even heard of them getting so big!" While she speaks I'm loading more flare rounds and lashing my lamp to the rifle barrel. I don't even bother with the spin-flute because these insects look absolutely berserk. "What is your plan to proceed, Captain?"

"Run through them."

"That is not wise or a plan." I begin running as the round begins to dissipate in the air. I hear her decry again the lack of my wisdom and planning. The fairy has no choice but to follow. She is clearly frantic and is yelling at me, or is just screaming. I see the drones turn at me quickly as they hear me slosh through the water and I smash my boot into one of their squishy eyes and step on another one's head, my heel collapsing its carapace and crushing its head. When the flare is almost dead and the shadows begin to run in, I point the rifle straight up and fire a screaming round high into the air. When it explodes I hear what sound like screams from the roof, and turn to see carcasses fall from the roof burning but the round begins to sputter out faster than normal embedded in the soft dirt of the ceiling. I run faster, doing all that I can to maintain footing and ignoring everything else. One of the drones lands on my back and immediately gashes me with its proboscis, tearing my tunic and skin in one swipe. I do a shoulder roll through the water and crush it, smearing it all over my upper body in the process. I hold the butt of the rifle up near my face for the final stretch and right after I do a drone comes down from the ceiling and I smash it right in the eye and send pieces of it flying. Another one springs from low in the water and I drive the stock right into the middle of its head. It flies back into the water then bounces out into another. I place both hands around the barrel and start swinging the backwards gun in front of me like a club. Full bodies, pairs, trios of drones are destroyed in front of me with every swing, chitinous chunks and shards flying everywhere, arthropod fluids splashing me almost to the point of soaking. I reach the tunnel as the flare round enters its final seconds of light and nearly run right into the horrific amount of web covering the mouth and running deep inside of it, likely filling it completely. I turn around and look to the numerous eyes advancing in the waning light. "What shall we do now Captain?" I pull the bolt of the rifle, expelling a flipping shell into the dark air, and then close it again to feed another fat round. I fire right into the thick web and the fairy jumps. The wall behind me violently erupts in flame, sending light far into the darkness and right into the advancing compound bug eyes. Navi yelps and I begin to back into the tunnel while the wall of flame devours the mass behind me, tunneling disastrously. "Come on, Navi." I hold the gun sights up to my left eye and level it at the screeching eyes, deeply alarmed. The fire crackles on the tunnel walls and roars behind me, its heat surrounds me and fills my lungs. "Captain this fire will not burn for very long. You know this."

"Yeah I do."

"The drones will follow."

"They won't."

"How do you know this? There will be nothing fettering their advance when the fire extinguishes." I turn and look at the terrific licking wall of flame retreating in step with me. "The webs were here for a reason. Like a door with a lock, a big 'do not disturb'." The web opens to the fire into a great open space as black as pitch lit only by the dimming flames fluttering in a sucking wind. I turn my back to the tunnel mouth and look into the darkness. Navi remains staring behind me at the fiery trail into the past. "What is this room?" Navi turns around and stares as I do with eyes themselves unseeable. "I do not know. It appears to be completely empty."

"So it probably isn't." I take three steps, essentially to announce myself. My blood boils and my heart explodes, I feel able and willing to kill whatever rests in this room. I look up at where the ceiling would be and scan until I meet a single massive glowing eye floating in the dark. I level the gun at it and fire my final flare round. The red phosphorescent sun explodes and the eye closes, a whole massive form shifts behind and around it and lunges to the damp earth below it. The impact shakes the mud and the puddles, myself and darkened limp forms lying around the room. The eye opens once more and three pairs of crustacean claws lift into the air and level at me. Dripping mandibles pop in and out; a terrible mouth opens and shuts passage to an even greater terror deep in the dark within. "Oh." It rears in the air and plunges the claws into the earth all around me, a blind attempt to skewer me that it follows with a slash from a long raptorial foreleg it had kept folded under its thorax. It plants this too into the earth and drags it through the mud back to itself. It turns so fast it is like a wrist flicking, and the clumps from its foreleg coat the room and me as it leaps and scales the walls. I run and strip the mud from my face, small bones poking at cheeks as I frantically slap them off. I can hear it root around on the ceiling, clicking loudly and shuffling. There are then more splashes to the ground softer than before. I turn back to the flare and see soft-shelled larvae bounding across the mud at me. A blow from my boot kills one easily when they are close enough and does not faze the others for even a second. "These are larvae!" Navi yells to me from two meters up in the air. I draw the sword and cleave a larva in one motion. "I know." I say through my teeth cutting another almost in half and rolling away.

"This must be the colony's queen. By the goddesses, it is quite large." She says catching up to me as I run across the room and eye the ceiling. From the tatters on the shoulder of my tunic I tear a long bloodied green strip of cloth, clutching both ends in my fist. I hear more shuffling as I continue running and stop just short of where the disgusting green-red shell lunges into the mud. I tuck and roll backwards and the mud almost cements my back to the ground, giving way with a beleaguered vacuum suck. The great eye turns and her claws and forelegs slash hellishly into the air and earth. I take up a stone in my makeshift sling and pin one of the ends under my forefinger as I back up. I begin swinging the sling furiously and the forces of it begin shifting my arm along with the spin. The queen lunges and rears high at me and I loose the big rock right into the middle of her eye with enough force to dent it before piercing. In the pause that the blow makes I step forward and slice her eye open in several places and then she begins scrambling frantically for the wall. I cling to a segment of her thorax as she slams into the wall. I clutch the slung rifle in the crook of my elbow and load a final thick hollow point round into it and as she climbs furiously, the mud gives and she slides backwards for a second and I climb up right to her brutalized eye. It rotates right to me and glares with inhuman focus. I stand balancing and there is a noticeable stop in everything the second before I jam the barrel right into my incisions and fire. The bullet splits and spreads open inside the eye and ploughs through the massive terror's insides until it blows a hole the size of my head through the other side of its carapace. A second after I shoot it, the queen bug falls from the wall and into the pile that it ejected from its exit wound. I fall off the carcass when it lands and lay on my back exhausted. "Captain that was utterly phenomenal. I am truly taken aback. You have saved the Great Deku Tree, and the whole of the forest!"

"You talk a lot." I say with me eyes closed, suddenly very aware of my deep harsh breathing and the loud pain of my shoulder. The fairy stings my forehead and I swipe sluggishly. "I say exactly as many things as I mean to, though do not fear, I think I've spoken exactly as many nice words about you as I possibly could as of now." She flies up into the dark and sounds a harrumph that echoes throughout. "Hey wait, come back." I whisper as a great root reaches down for me from the dark. "I don't mean to be a bad friend." I say, muffled as the Great Deku's root envelopes me and begins to lift me back to the surface.


	4. IV - A great mission

**I AWAKEN **on my back staring straight up into a sky filled with leaves. The setting sun pierces through the leaves and the trees all around sideways like long arrows of heavenly amber. A leaf gently lands on my cheek and I hold it up to the sky. Another lands but I feel its dryness on my forehead. I sit up and clutch the leaf as another dry crumbly leaf falls to my lap. I look up to find myself again meters away from the Deku tree, with Navi hovering nearby and observing me. The stillness of the air is disrupted in the meadow now, the sound of falling leaves and sudden surges of wind disrupting the environment. "Captain…thou art…victorious. As I…truly knew…you…would be." The Deku Tree's pauses are noticeably pained even if he lacks the ability to pronounce his ailments in an animalistic fashion. He struggles for every phrase as something holds his very being down. "I never…faltered…in my believing. Thine courage…is as…potent…as fire. It…is a thing…tied to thy very…being. It…is…marvelous. Now…if thou would…give audience to…a single…final…lesson…before you depart…I would…deliver it…unto thee."

"I will listen, Great Deku." It is then that I notice a vine snaking up to the high canopy is draped above my head and in a second it descends slowly onto my forehead. I close my eyes and see darkness unnatural to the backs of my eyelids. The Deku Tree's voice begins clearer than it had been any of the times I had heard it previously and I silently note the damage this observation is related to. "Listen carefully to me. Be aware, a wicked bandit from a far desert wasteland cast this curse upon me.". There is suddenly fire piercing the darkness, erupting everywhere save a single area far in the distance that my sight begins to move toward. The flames heat my skin though this is a vision, and my body feels the terse hatred of the world of this vision as if it were malicious light of an evil sun. I pass through a surging tongue of flame and see the black car of my nightmares, sitting still and driverless with its roof retracted. The flames light the plated exterior and utilitarian interior, revealing a steering column wrapped in cloth in a bare cockpit full of exposed wiring and metal and a series of strange red and blue geometric patterns stenciled onto the black plate. Not one inch of metal on the entire vehicle reflects or shines. "This man hunts without tire the sacred realm connected to our own. There is nothing he will not dare, nor a step he will not take in his dark quest." A towering figure rises beside the vehicle, a long shroud sweeping off of his body and bursting into flames. The tall body turns to look straight into the distance, the fire illuminating a rigid nose and long narrow chin sculpted with skin an alien shade of dark moss green and decorated with a sinister metal flourish in the center of the forehead. I recognize the eyes as I look at them, their loud, powerful yellow hue somehow brighter than the firelight all around. "Much has he discarded, and he has yet determined to discard that which he sees fit, all for the sake of a single, solitary item lying within the Sacred Realm. That which is called the Triforce, itself a container filled with power unexplainable and supernatural, what is described as the essence of divinity that created our world." As he begins to turn to me I breathe in hard, but the scene flashes back to utter darkness. I release my breath as my heart pumps beat by beat out of my ears. "Legend booms the tale of this thing beyond mortal reach and knowing. Before time began, before the first heart bade legs and wings to rise and move and magic coalesced into consciousness of all beings, three goddesses with visages of liquid glimmering gold descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule." Three spears of light fall down into the dark far away from my viewpoint, coloured tails of pure light trailing each. The Deku Tree begins again and it becomes clear that I am not being spoken to. Instead I am listening to the narration of a prepared scene, something the Tree had created for me to watch on my successful return from the insect den. "Din, mighty and commanding goddess of power, bid the world's composite matter to be with the strength of her own arms, creating the great red earth." A banner of red light shoots over me and I am suddenly standing upon a red stone plain, the sky tumultuous with thunder and lightning. "Nayru, goddess of wisdom, knower of things in totality, aligned the world into cycles, laws and systems, bidding water to fall and all things to eventually fall to give rise to others." A blue streak flashes and a river suddenly washes by my legs. I can feel its coolness through my boots and it does not splash me. Above the sky quiets and turns a pale and gentle blue. "And finally, Farore, goddess of courage, with a bold soul and bright eyes, crafted the life that would uphold and observe these laws, the life that would love and create." The final green tail gives rise to plants and trees that grow incredibly fast becoming towering trees and fully bloomed wildflowers in seconds. Insects and small animals slowly drift and wander to the stream and mill about its flowing waters. "The goddesses, their labors in this realm completed, made their exit from it at a single point in space and time. It was there and then, at the point where the three goddesses immense power was gathered all at once to alter the fabric of our created realm, that three golden triangles were created linked, eternally at their vertices, remained." I am made to see the scene of the three coloured comets departing in a flash in a dark sky, and to see the three triangles aligned into one superform glowing in the dark, beams of light shooting from the points where the three triangles meet. "From then on, these triangles were the wellspring of good fortune for this world, the source its providence, and their resting place became the Sacred Realm, a place altogether removed from our Hyrule itself." The world darkens again and I regain my sight of the physical world, the meadow and the folds of my clothing having been heavily blanketed with dead leaves during my vision. "Thine…belief in these…legends…is not required…dear Captain…but…heed thou must…these tales. While thou…may not…believe them…the bandit…he in the black armor…does. To a…deadly…serious extent…he does." Navi just then notes as I do the Deku Tree's rapidly decaying speech.

"Great Deku!"

"Be at peace…brave, clever Navi. The…curse…that man laid…upon me…was indeed…one of…tremendous power…of pure malice. It…turned…the very creatures of this forest…transformed them…against mine body…to devour me.

"But the bugs are dissipated, the mad scrubs will leave. Great Deku the curse is broken!"

"Thine efforts…incredible…courageous…as they were…could not…have altered…this…my fate. Yes…my time…is nigh…as it…has been since…I tasked you." The fairy begins to sob. My eyes well and my nose burns. For all of my complaining of the forest and my alien-ness to it, it has still been my home, the Dekumekuna my guardian. My life is beginning to fall to pieces. This advent I thought I would have desired a mere day ago is now real and causing me undeniable anguish. I am unsure of what to say so I simply watch the great spirit of the forest die.

"Weep not for me…for at the end…I was…honored…to initiate…the…salvation…of this land. My life…has been…long…and…full…but this shall be…my greatest triumph. I pray…you will allow…this…self-indulgence…my happiness…is boundless now."

"But Great Deku, what shall we do without you?"

"You will…leave this forest…and go…north…to the castle…to the princess."

"Wait, what?" I say, suddenly sobered, surprised. "How will I survive?"

"Ah…there are yet more deeds…for which…I must…ask forgiveness. As I have…withheld…a truth…from…Navi…my star pupil…so too…have I withheld…a truth…from…you...my champion."

"Which truth? What don't I know?" My confusion boils me slowly, anticipation stinging in my chest, worry lingering.

"That…thou…are not…of…this forest…Captain. Never…have you been…Kokiri. A child…of the world…at large…you are…left by providence…in my care." I take a large step back and breathe heavily, my heart now racing and mind alight, memories of all my life being stained and pulled apart. "What? Why!? Why has no one said anything? Told me?"

"Because…they…my other children…never…knew." Navi turns to me slowly now as he pauses. " I…have…protected them…my precious children…zealously…for ages…they fear…do not understand…that…which is…different. So…I adopted thee…loved you…no differently. Thus…the truth...was...obstructed. Verily…thou must have…sensed…thy uniqueness…from the others. So tall…art thou…and growing still…at only fourteen…years…while other Kokiri…ageless…through the centuries…remain…stunted." It had been an issue Saria had brought up once just the past month. I was a full head taller than some of the others and easily the tallest of all. I know the others noticed this too, in secret and quiet, their sideways glances revealing all. "So I can leave the forest? Just walk out?"

"Yes…and leave…thou must. This lush place…this that has been…thy home…must be…forsaken. All…must be…forsaken…Captain…all but…thine mission. That…is the final…truth…I will impart to thee…that ye shall…become…this mission…that thou…shall be…consumed…for the sake…of all. For this…I…am…sorry. Also...am I sorry...that...I could not...make...this...place...a...true...home. I am...so...very...sorry"

"Great Deku Tree, please, save your strength."

"No…Navi please…I must speak…I must…help…Captain. I…have failed…in…many things. But in…what…little…assistance…I can offer…to this boy…I will have…a triumph…to carry…to my doom. Now…take this…the thing…that villain…wished for…so…desperately…that he hath…killed me." From on high something that glitters green in the twilight falls onto a sizeable pile of leaves and stays resting on the top, as if presented on a huge cushion. I step over to the pile and scoop up a cabochon emerald that fills my palm, set in gold that swirled around into the center of the dome. In the light, all the greens of the forest play in its heart. "Navi…thou knowest…what…that…is."

"Yes Great Deku. It is the Kokiri Emerald. I am honored to be able to see something so very sacred."

"Yes…you must…take it Captain…and…fly from here…to…the north…to the princess…the…princess…of destiny."

"I will." The words come up and out into the meadow like vomit, they are a reflexive act to this dying wish.

"Then…now…ye begin. Navi…gentle…brave…clever…Navi…to whom I entrust…this most…important…task…know now…that thou…art capable…art perfect…for this. Among…all fairies…it could…only…be…thine. Be…good…to…one…another…and…this…world…I…entreat…ye…" The wind seems to suck into the sky.

"Good….bye…" A wind surges down through the meadow and disappears altogether as if the world itself held its breath. I sit down as the Dekumekuna begins to visibly and horribly wither, its bark turning a deadly gray from the roots upward, life draining from the great tree as the spirit within fades away to oblivion. The leaves begin falling like rain. The fairy sobs quietly and hot tears cascade from me as we remain there in the meadow, the only witnesses to one of the greatest beings in the entire world.


	5. V - Flight into darkness

**THE NIGHT **is oppressively dark when I exit the groves. Torches seem to only hold orbs of light in their sconces and no further into the ink air. The rifle is slung up high and the strap aggravates my bare skin and coagulated gash. My fingers are sticky with blood and fluid. My body is heavy, its ligaments swiveling as if tied by rocks when I swing them. The ground is carpeted with blossoms, filthy in the dirt and sticking to my boots. When I look up I see the trees are all completely bare, dark skeleton tentacles wrapped around one other. Mido carries palpable worry on his face when he runs to me, kicking up rotting blossoms coming down the avenue. "Captain! Captain, have you any idea what's happened? All the fairies are weeping and terrified, all the blossoms have fallen in the groves. The Know-It-Alls say the spores everywhere but here and the Lost Woods are gone completely." He looks to me, trying to hold composure but just as terrified as the tone of his news. The traditions that he could use to gauge the world are disappeared without a trace, as are mine. I can think of no lie or story to tell someone in my same position, as I can no better lie or seduce myself. "The Great Deku Tree is dead." I say, unwittingly exuding the deathly colours deep in myself out onto him, an individual so desperately seeking refuge in lies or false solution that I cannot save from the truth. Mido takes a step back and grows pale, gasping hard and faltering in the very core of his being. He looks at me with wild eyes, desperation sole inheritor to them now. "That can't be." I stay totally silent and look deep into him as his lips quiver, both of us powerless and feeling it. "It just can't." I begin to walk past me but he plants his hand onto my chest and pushes me back. "What do you mean. That can't happen." He pushes me again but I keep pressing forward.

"What have you done." I'm almost past him in total silence when he uses both hands and shoves me backward into a tree. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE CAPTAIN?" He pushes me over and over, uttering more guttural queries, hunting his answers down inside himself and me. "ANSWER DAMN IT ANSWER WHAT DID YOU DO? HUH? WHAT HAPPENED? THIS CAN'T HAPPEN SO WHAT DID YOU DO?" I meet his gaze here and I hang silence in front of him so that he may confront the truth of neither of us being able to alter the course of things now, or so I think I do, or so I wish to. His teeth flash, gritted, and his eyes narrow as his face reddens, the tears beginning to pulse out and spit expel to anguished sobs. He swings a wild fist at my face and I catch him by the forearm, pull him wide open and strike his agonized face with the back of my fist. He falls right to the ground, clutching his cheek and hyperventilating. I look down on him, tears and spit running over his hand, unintelligible curses and lamentations parsing from his open and shut lips. The Deku Tree had told me with his dying words to be good to the world and this was my first act right after, knocking a frightened victim into the dirt. My shame grows deeper by the second. When I begin walking again, Mido begins to shout from the ground between sobs, the same question over and over. He wants to know why I did it, and then he simply wants to know why. Why? Why? Why? "Captain you have done nothing wrong, he is wrong to implicate you." I say nothing to the fairy as it emerges to comfort me in the air beside. I kick in the door to the equipment shed as it begins to rain, splintering the door with unnecessary violence. I take up a big pack and start dumping shells in. I grab a single skillet and more rope and some gas. I pick up a bedroll and strap it to the side of the pack before turning back out and walking again straight across the village with strides so great that I am basically running. It is Hani who stops me just before I get to the gorge crossing to the West. I know every person in the village is watching me go in some capacity. "Captain, you can't go out that far and you know it. Please, I know something terrible has happened but whatever it is we can get through it together. Please, there's been enough death today." The tears roll down his face and I start to walk right past him. He flings his whole self in front of me, arms and legs spread wide as to disallow as much as possible. "I won't let you Captain." I do not want to say anything to him or anyone, because there is something in my self so huge that I do not even want to begin to let it out now. I ball my fist and he watches it, meeting my eyes defiantly. "Why, Captain?" More of the same words continue to shake me. Far across the village I can still hear Mido bellow the same sentiment even if he is not truly yelling any more. I open my fist and he loosens up, then I grab his tunic by the scruff and twist and hunch while I hurl his whole body over my shoulder and splat him into the mud. His body is sunk in so deep that it takes significant effort for him to free his arm to stifle his sobs. I traverse everything else in a flash, leaving everything in the mud behind me. When I reach the big suspension bridge with its tall gates lit by torches, I stare across to the other side. Past the other gate with the torches in the sconces is tremendous hollow tree trunk laid like a tunnel, the rim of its mouth lit, its innards black as a pupil. I take my first steps onto the bridge when I stop and turn a quarter of the way. Behind me, leaning out from the gateway Saria looks at me with a face pained with worry. Her eyes shoot through the thickening twilight and the partial shade of her sopping poncho's hood, her pale fingers shiver in the cold. We're silent there for almost a minute, the torches sputtering and hissing, raindrops drumming the boards and pelting the leaves all around. "So you are leaving. Really leaving."

"Yeah. I have to go." She takes her hands from the post and stands more in the open, her whole front facing me while I stand tilted, looking back only and detached. "I knew you would leave someday."

"You think I'm running away."

"No, I don't. I know you have a reason."

"How could you know?"

"I just do, I always did. And I knew when the time came to decide to stay or go, you'd be sad about leaving."

"I've wanted this for a long time, it was the only thing I wished for, to be able to go and see things."

"But you didn't want it like this." She steps closer and stares deeply into me, pouring sympathy into my eyes. "The Deku Tree passed away, didn't it?"

"Yes."

"From a curse."

"How did you know that?"

"You've seen the forest. So have I. His magic, his presence, it's been fading all around and now its gone. You didn't do this Captain, it's not your fault." She always knows things, is always vigilant of the happenings of my being. Her eyes go right into me and see me. "But this is what I wished for, this was my dream. I didn't want this place to be my home. I wanted this to happen. But still…I hate this. The world had to come apart for me to get what I want. I resent my wish. I resent myself for wishing it." Saria stands back a bit before proceeding to move closer again. "You mustn't blame yourself, Captain. Your dreams were what they were, and the world is what it is. Your wishes did nothing to cause anything but more wishes, things outside and away from you caused everything that has happened. Are you leaving just because of regret?" I pause looking her in the eye.

"The Deku Tree entrusted me with a mission."

"A mission to do what?"

"I don't know exactly, but he said it was important."

"I knew that's what it'd be. Some quest would call you away."

"Did you read that in your tea leaves?"

"I didn't have to, it was obvious. That someone as special as you would grow up here was evidence enough."

"You knew about that too? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it never mattered. You were my friend, and that meant more than anything to me." She reaches into a pouch at her belt, pulls out her earthen ocarina and holds it out me in the rain. I turn to her fully now, staring at her prize aimed toward me. "Nothing else matters, Captain, whether you leave or anything, because we will be friends forever." The rain hides her few tears well. "I want you to have this ocarina. Please, show it love." I close the gap and take it up in my hands after wiping them. I hold it with pure care, slight wind whistling in the dark of its holes. "Play it often and think of me, think of this forest and coming back sometime, okay?" The rain keeps up but the air between us feels still. She pulls the water darkened green poncho over her head and slams my head through it. "To keep you dry."

"I'm already soaked" The tears are hot before they mix and disappear in the rain. I hug her tightly as I had only once before. I release her and step back once. There is nothing but the rain; there are no tears. I begin to back away more. When I am ready I say it: "Be good, Saria," and then I turn and run as she replies the same, her wishes for me flying through the trees and up into the clouds, syllables booming in her voice across all the imaginable world as I step into the darkness ahead. BE GOOD, CAPTAIN.

**I RUN **flat out into the night and through the rain. I only need run due west, along the rough unkempt path to the world. I keep the rifle in my hands at my chest, only releasing one hand to jump over dark formless obstructions at my feet. The rain has yet to relent, assaulting everything with millions of falling liquid spears and filling the air with incredible noise. The fairy shivers, somehow cold, even in my sleeve near my hot flesh. "You should not be running through this rain. Stop and make camp." I remain silent save for my gasping. The forest beyond the village is not safe to be in anymore, even for those partnered. The protections of the Great Deku are gone now. Predators will swarm. They will grow large from magic flowing up from the earth, become fantastically adept at killing, and than progress beyond. The plants themselves may even begin to predate, will hunger for meat and life. All things that are prey will be devoured, or will begin to devour. I have no idea how fast this will happen, but it will happen. I think the Great Deku wished for me to leave before any danger closed in on my path, so I will not stop until I am out of this forest. My chest is tight and flaming, the back of my throat burns and spit torrents over my teeth and out everywhere. "I can't stop. This rain…is perfect." I leap over a dark jut and my boots splash loud into the soaked ground. Yes, the rain will cover me; hide me from the creatures of the forest that would want to find me. This was probably a final gift from the Dekumekuna, summoned from the heavens to render aid one final time. My boots rip through low ferns and shrubs; a branch whips and lacerates my cheek. My stamina is failing to lessen though I've been sprinting faster than I ever have before for almost two hours. "I had not noticed before, but this rain…it's delivering magic from high in the atmosphere." Her voice is clear in my mind even through the rain, the sounds of the world around us dimming to bow to her voice. "Just…for me?"

"Yes. I think so." Even her quiet sniveling cuts the night after she finishes speaking. The rain empowers me faster for another hour before I almost crash into a gigantic mass of patchy fur and diseased live meat. The bear turns to me quickly and the fairy emerges and illuminates it. The deep red veins of its sclera reveal when it levels its dead eyes at me, its bared teeth are sick yellow bones. I stand with my hand ready on my sword and the rifle leveled, a finger poised on the trigger. The sick animal makes unnatural noises I can hear over the rain but does nothing but stare. I am filled with immense pity and step back. This animal has been sick for a long time. Its den is somewhere far away and it has left it forever, to roam until it dies. It stares at the fairy floating in the heavy raindrops, its irises jellied and pale, obscuring nail hole pupils. "This is evil magic's corruption of the nature of this forest. This animal is in a tremendous amount of pain." She flies toward me and the bear's sickly gaze follows her. "Captain, what do you wish to do?" I release the sword and plant my hand high up the underside of the rifle. The sounds of the bear's heavy breathing seems to drown out even the rain, billows of vapor rising into the air from its jaws look like exhaled clouds of its life. I wait a second more before the bear looks to the ground and begins to slink into the dark. I break for the west again before I can do anything else. I have not looked back since I have started running, because I have not been going that way.

**THE RAIN **is letting up all around me and I clutch the rifle tighter. Danger may well beset me even before the moment the final drop hits the earth. Each heartbeat is like an explosion that pushes fire into my blood and through my whole body. I cast my eyes everywhere, crazily. I can feel eyes falling upon me, the intentions behind them. Rustling and splashing begin around me, the dull thud of earth being pounded by focused flesh. I try to muster everything I have left toward the west, to bring the whole of my being in the direction. The trees begin to thin and the path becomes clearer, but I am more and more being pursued. If I stop I will be surrounded. My only hope is that they will not dare to move beyond the trees. Patches of moonlight appear through high clouds and fall upon a clear road in the open-air just moments away. I grit my teeth and lean forward, slipping once but sprinting with everything left. When I pass the last dark tree I leap forward and spin around with the long gun leveled. When I pull the trigger the muzzle flares inside a wide pink mouth. Lying on my back I pull the bolt open and a shell spins from the breech. I close it again, sitting up and aiming into the howling dark. I blink sweat and rainwater, waiting in the fresh silence. When I'm certain, I rise and begin to shuffle slowly down the path, exhausted. Two large dead trees stand away from the tree line beside the path like forsaken guardians of this old path. I run my hand on the pale wood stripped of bark by time, and then slowly sink to my knees. I flop over to rest my back on the tree and sit upon the grass, the full furiously bright moon hiding behind the clouds once more as a gentle symphony of bugs lulls me to sleep.


	6. VI - The wind and the road

**A FURIOUS **gust in the air rouses me. I open my eyes and they fall upon rolling grassland stretching into the horizon. Red poppies and lavender dot the healthy green land, bowing and lolling in the breeze. I have never in my life seen such an open sky, such space. I scan the scape and take in the smell of the fresh mild wind, one that splashes my face and rifles through my hair. My sighing wakes the fairy. She flies up above me, and ascends further until she is halfway up the dead tree. "My goodness. Such beautiful country."

"Yes, quite so Madam Fairy. The land of Hyrule is as beautiful as any in all creation, it is." The accented voice is loud and booming from above in the boughs of the far dead tree. I roll back and level the gun into the branches at a massive owl. It cocks its head and furrows its great-feathered horns, translucent eyelids blinking across its great sunburst eyes. Words erupt from its sharp crooked beak when it opens. "Oh dear, Captain, you mistake me for an enemy. I assure you, I am the fastest friend you will ever make. I am called Kaepora Gaebora by the esteemed spiritkin that employ my service. Few mortals gaze upon me and even fewer have ever heard my words, though I have been told that is a gift for them as I am prone to carrying on for far too long." I lower my rifle only a little, tensing my right arm so as to be able to lift the barrel right back up at any given second. "What do you do for the spirits?"

"Well, I am their messenger of course! Though they may be wonderfully gifted with magic and other abilities, they are still distributed quite far and wide, rendering many of them unable to communicate with their peers far afield. My service is therefore summoned to rectify the problem of distance."

"Okay, so you have a message for me. What is it?"

"Well I believe some commendation is in order first. The lifting of the Dekumekuna's curse was quite an extraordinary feat; praiseful whispers are spoken of it in many parts of this world I'm sure. Beyond that even, I was told you would take the full breadth day to reach this place from the deep woods, however barely half a night's travel has delivered you the full distance. Simply marvelous." I begin looking around slowly, checking for things closing in on me, or for a sign if this the beginning of some kind of nightmare. "Oh I've done it, wot. I've altogether gone on too long and nearly lost you. The truth of the matter is that I am more familiar with the finer details of the mortal world than any other spirit, and have been employed to render unto you advice regarding your mission. I will make this brief: You now stand within Hyrule's central province; your goal lies in the capital to the northwest, you must make haste to that city. Yon lies a road that will take you to one of this realm's royal causeways. To aid you further I have also brought you a gift." The great bird kicks a tied parcel from its bald raptor leg and it slaps to the ground a few paces away. I put down the rifle and reach and pull it to my lap. The parcel is bound in old tough hide, closed with a string woven from some kind of hair the donor of which I cannot identify. I unwind the string and the hide flaps fall away to reveal a pile of ancient parchment maps. I pick up the one on top and open it wide. Etched upon it is a series of veins and dots and characters, most of which are alien to me. I recognize the flamboyant compass rose and the veins I realize are roads of various levels of importance. At the top of the map is a great tangle of roads and characters, of which many of the major roads on the map lead. "That which you look upon now is the capital city of this kingdom, Shigmiya, your destination." I search the right of the map for the forest and find a road leading to a shaded area emblazoned with characters and shocks of red. "So we're here then."

"Yes, right you are. A clever young man if ever there was one."

"What's all this writing around the forest?"

"Ah, of course, I was right in thinking you would not be literate in the Hylian language. Quite the conundrum that."

"I can read Hylian." The fairy literally chimes in, flying over my shoulder and ringing. "Ah quite lucky you are to have such a partner, Monsieur Captain." The fairy flies along the surface of the outstretched map, scanning it in lines. She pauses at a series of characters near the bottom of the map. "The Hylian calendar year is 1998, correct?"

"I believe so."

"Yes or no, Mr. Gaebora." Her abruptness with this creature many times larger than her surprises me. I stifle a single snicker.

"Yes."

"Then this map is over five hundred years old." She flies up to the big bird on the branch. My urge to laugh disappears and I glare at the map. "Do you have any idea how inaccurate that map may be? Are all of them that old?"

"Yes I believe so." The owl inches away. "The problem is, Madam Fairy, that spirits do not keep maps in their possession; those that can actually move are more prone to wander than travel. I'm sure you understand this."

"Of course I understand that. What I don't understand is how this situation did not require procuring a map at least less than a century old."

"Well you must understand also that notice was so short in my coming here, I had no time."

"Lack of notice is an excuse for nothing. My partner and I received no notice at all for the deadly events that we've walked through, and you want this foolishness excused because _you_ weren't ready for this? Did you not think we would need more than old maps and half-baked directions from a blabbering mail carrier?"

"Navi, stop it." The fairy turns and I can feel her glare. I glare back at her, furrowing my brow to show disapproval the way Saria does. The fairy turns back to the owl once and then darts like lighting into my sleeve, where she perches and begins to heat up noticeably. I gaze back at the map. The old forgotten road the dead trees stand upon is represented on the map, leading to a thin road that snakes to the west. The first road intersecting it is thick and crosshatched, leading north to the loud grouping of lines at the top of the map. I look to the west and see the faint scarring of the old road running through the hills. I begin bundling the maps save for the one in my hand. "I think this map may still work yet. Thank you, Mister Gaebora."

"Well I was simply doing my duty, no thanks are required." Navi heats to burning temperatures. "My parting words to you are this: do not be discouraged, never look down, never look back. We are each born with our eyes frontward and necks naturally erect, to always look up and into the future. With that said, I take my leave. Until next time, Monsieur Captain, adieu." The owl unfurls his wide brown wings and takes off from the bough with a single flap. A powerful gust blows down on me again and again as he hovers. He then turns, flies high into the sky, and begins shrinking into the great blue field hanging over the world. Before he's gone from sight Navi emerges and scoffs. "Good advice from an idiot squire, incredible." I fold the map and tuck it gingerly into my pack, then pull it over my shoulders and begin walking to the west.

**I LOWER **the map and the fairy laughs. "Oh what a difference half a thousand years can make in the world." In front of me is a massive structure made from a smooth grey stone, standing taller than a tree and wider than several hills. Surrounding it is a tall metal fence topped with sinister coils of barbed wire. I had left the trail an hour ago when I had heard some kind of engine approach beyond sight. Camouflaged in the grass by my green tunic, I watched a big grey six-wheeled truck barrel down the road to the forest, its flapping canvas canopy revealing figures sitting in its covered bed. "You know what that is right?"

"Yeah, they still teach rangers about vehicles that come near the forest."

"I wonder what they're doing at the forest's edge."

"Hopefully not going in."

"Are you worried about the Kokiri?"

"No, I'm worried about whoever goes into the forest." I said, then got up and walked out of sight from the road. Now I paw the wire fence and gaze into the big compound with its floor of hardpan dirt encircling more stone at the building's feet. I look over and meet a man in a blue-grey uniform's eye through the fencing. "Hey get back from the fence." I release it and take a step back. He storms toward me, adjusting a battle rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Don't your parents ever teach you farm kids what military buildings are? You can't just come wandering up here with a hunting rifle, you could get shot, don't you know that?"

"You didn't shoot me."

"Yeah because we get goofy farm boys wandering up to the fence all the time, thinking who knows what."

"What's so special about this place?"

"It's a Weather Station, we have people surveying all kinds of weather patterns and things from the forest here."

"Refrain from asking too many questions, Captain. If this man becomes too suspicious he may detain you. You being arrested would seriously hinder the mission." I look around the whole fence. "Your parents know you have that?" I look back to the guard narrowing his eyes at me. "The gun?"

"No, that thing behind your ear."

"He's seen your Kokiri brand."

"They don't know about it, no."

"Lemme see it again." I tilt my head to let him see the dark swirl tattooed behind my ear. "Oh man bud, don't you know that symbol's bad luck? It's carved into a bunch of trees in the forest. It's illegal in some counties to display that on your property, y'know."

"Bad luck."

"Yeah bad luck. Listen I don't believe it myself but the important thing is that other people believe it. Those woods are weird, and anything close to them in place or idea is weird by relation. Weirdness changes the way you look at stuff, then changes the stuff after long, y'know?"

"So is this place weird?"

"I'd say. We've had guys coming in and out of here more and more recently, lots of talk going around. The forest is getting weirder somehow so I guess we're going with it. We just sent a truck of guys down the old forest path to go see what's what."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"You'd think right? Apparently there's less critters around though now, and no one's seen a midget in a while."

"A midget."

"Yeah the people in the forest. They're real short, don't you know?"

"Haven't heard them called that before."

"Yeah because everyone's piss scared of them. They kill people that enter the forest with magic or some tale like that. They call them all kinds of fearful names, and there's scores of stories out there."

"The forest itself is scarier than any people in it."

"Agreed on that one. Anything with magic's touch in it shakes me up." Just then another voice booms across the yard. GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THE FENCE FARMBOY AND GO HOME. "Yeah you better mind him and go home, hear?"

"Right." I step away again and walk the fence. Passing the man who yelled at me near its corner, cover my neck with my hand and fake a pain that would require rubbing. In my peripheral I see him glaring at my rifle and me. I feel uneasy, in peril, so I quicken my pace and walk wide around the whole perimeter to a road paved with fieldstones leading west. I walk it for an hour before a motor runs up the road behind me. A motorcycle wheels in front of me and a hefty soldier dismounts, pulling a pair of goggles down around his high collar. I recognize him as the man that shooed me from the fence. He takes a step toward me and flares his wide nostrils. "What farm do you come from, boy?" I freeze up and drop unconsciously into a stance, my face growing hot. I cannot think of any lie, my mind is blank. There is a gun in his embossed leather holster. "None of them." I say vaguely, looking right into his eyes. I watch him look to my hand on the gun's sling, to the hilt of the sword and slowly back to me. "You're a runaway, ain't ya?"

"Yeah." I say, hoping to fish a story from this man's ideas about me.

"So, again, which farm?"

"None, I'm from Shigmiya."

"Bullshit you are with all that. You're on an adventure now, done left home behind to head to the big city." He stretches his big hand out to me. "Gimme the rifle and that knife, you're coming with me." I begin to unsling the rifle when I hear the fairy talk. "Captain you cannot allow yourself to be arrested."

"I know."

"Well that's good, hand it over slowly, boy." The big soldier says, deaf to the fairy.

"You've blinded people before, you could do it again, right?" I say looking at the soldier in front of me moving the rifle slowly across the divide.

"Oh, yes, but…"

"What the hell are you talking about? Look I may seem big and mean but I'm just lookin' out for you, wouldn't think of doing you any harm."

"Good. Then get ready." I lift and jam smack his hand with the rifle.

"Oh. Oh yes doing it." Navi yells and flies from my sleeve into the soldier's eyes. He flails his big arms and steps back as she stings him zealously. I drop to the ground and let the rifle clatter, and then sweep his big legs from the back with all the strength I can muster from my hands, arms and legs together. His legs pop from under him and he falls to onto his back with tremendous noise, and my left arm is wrapped around his neck in the same moment. His roars gurgle as I clamp his neck and arteries, and I trap one of his arms at the shoulder with my right leg. He flails wildly, clawing and punching at me, smashing my nose once and hard. Blood starts flowing hard onto his face from my nostrils. His roars and shouts become more unintelligible and quiet by the second. When he finally loses consciousness, his meaty hand falls from my head and onto the road. I stand over him for a second, heart racing. Be good to the world, the Deku Tree had told me, and here I had knocked out a man who had done nothing wrong. "That was terrifying."

"We can't be arrested."

"Yes. But still." I turn and begin to run.

"Wait, wait." I stop and turn to the fairy, hovering and stationary. "This may be a…fortuitous…event after all." I turn and look to her for a second as she descends to perch on the motorcycle's handlebar and realize the kind of fortune she speaks of. "No"

"Captain we stand to gain quite a bit. Transportation chief among them."

"We stand to rob a man we've already assaulted."

"If he truly knew the importance of our mission, he would _give _it to us."

"Do you know the importance of our mission?"

"You jest now. You joke because of the vagueness of our mission's parameters and purpose. It isn't funny."

"Is excessive crime important to our mission?"

"Now you listen to me, Captain. The forces of evil close in on the world by the second, there is no time to argue, and there is barely enough time to question whether or not we are doing the right thing. Now currently, we have no currency to use in this country, a set of ancient, likely useless, maps, no way of proving you're anything more than a roving delinquent, and to top it all of you want to leave this man with a vehicle he could easily use to either quickly catch us, or have others hunt us down on our way to our destination, a place which you also informed him of. Our situation is our situation, we are trapped within it, and so we can either work to escape or stay in the trap to sate your pride." I walk past the fairy and flip the man gingerly onto his face. I rifle through the pockets of his pants and produce a long key, several pieces of folded paper and a leather wallet. I open it and pull out a bushel of old soft pieces of paper, printed with various designs and characters. "What is this?"

"Those are rupee notes, this nation's currency. Those are altogether worth eighty individual rupees."

"Is that good?"

"Yes, mildly."

"Alright then." I fold the notes and slide them into a pouch. I almost roll the man back but decide not to in case anything falls into his mouth from above. I place the wallet and papers into his pockets again and pat them. "Hurry." The fairy urges. I mount the motorcycle and balance it between my legs. "How do I start this?"

"Insert the key here." She hovers above the center console, around a circular inset socket. I do as she says. "Twist it." It does not twist. "No, that isn't correct. Press the button on that handlebar." I do so. She ponders for a second and flies around the body of the vehicle. "Here! Lower this lever and stomp on it." I look to my right where she hovers by my foot. I kick out the lever she flies at and stomp on it zealously. The engine turns and roars to life between my legs. I am significantly taken aback by the noise and potential of the engine below me. "Wondrous."

"Yeah." I say quietly. Pulling the goggles up like I had seen the soldier do.

"Now twist the right handle." I do so and the bike moves forward quickly.

"Now stop so we can gauge the potential of this vehicle." I let the bike race down the road. The wind whips in my ears and fills my cheeks when I open my mouth to tell Navi to settle down. My heart feels lighter and my whole body is one with my speed. I am only riding for another minute before the bike wobbles viciously and I am sent flying sideways. "You look very remorseful." The fairy says when she catches up. I sit up in the grass and listen to the wind rustle the grass and the engine rumble on the stones. I get up and feel soreness in my leg and body in general. I stand the bike and drive it slowly down the road, but not slow enough to stop me from falling again an hour later.


End file.
